Internal walls

Depending on the design there a load bearing and non load bearing walls in your house. How do this material fit for those internal walls?

Load bearing walls

are best made with ICF/PIF/StyroStones completing the whole load bearing structure with concrete in one go.

The additional advantage of having the load bearing internal walls made this way is the insulation. It is as easy to keep a house warm as it is to keep it cool. So especially in summer you do not want your walls to absorb the heat of the day only to radiate it by night disturbing your sleep.

There are only few cases, where, due to access to sunlight the gain of heat in winter is bigger than the disadvantage in summer.

Finishing

The internal walls can be finished using a wet plaster such as Carlite bonding as a base coat to approx 9mm and then a multi finish plaster at a thickness of approx3mm to give the polished finish.

A far more popular method is to dry line the walls with 12.5mm plaster board and then apply a plaster finish to these. Also these boards can be taped and jointed. The plaster board can be fixed to the styrofoam walls using either dot and dab dry lining compound, mechanically fixed through into the internal separating ties of the stones or fixed to a proprietary framing system such as "Gyproc".

The advantages of dry-lining are numerous. It reduces drying out time of the property. Services such as electric and plumbing can be lost behind the boards. Sound insulation is enhanced. Also the integrity of the inner insulation layer is not compromised by "chasing out" for services.

Wet rooms, bathrooms and utility areas that require tiling can be finished by applying the tiling direct to the styrofoam though some contractors will prefer to apply a fibre mesh reinforced base coat prior to tiling.